Facilitating access to digital video

ABSTRACT

A digital video editing system uses a graphical user interface which facilitates the selection of a video sequence of interest and its representation in a conveniently visualized form. Through the graphical user interface, the user may select a starting frame, a time interval, and a number of frames within the time interval which may be represented by thumbnail depictions of selected video frames. Once the video sequence is represented by a selected sequence of video frames over a selected interval, the user can then use editing techniques to manipulate the portions of the video sequence represented by the thumbnail depictions.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates generally to editing video stored in a digitalformat.

A number of formats for digital video currently exist. For example, inconnection with so called broadcast pause and resume systems, aconventional hard disk drive may be utilized to store streamingtelevision programming. These systems may alternatively read and writevideo from and to the same storage medium such as a hard disk drive. Inaddition, digital video may be stored on a digital versatile disk orother optical storage media.

Once the video has been stored in a digital format, manipulation of thatvideo may be undertaken using processor-based systems. For example,conventional digital versatile disk players may incorporate a selectivezoom function wherein the user may use a remote control to zoom aportion of the picture in a selected quadrant.

However, in most conventional digital formats, the ability to edit thestored video is relatively limited. The user can replay the informationby selecting zoom features, slow motion, stills, and other techniquesbut the ability to manipulate the data is still relatively limited.

Thus, there is a need for more ways to manipulate digital video datastored on digital storage media.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a screen display in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for use in connection with the screen displayshown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for use in connection with the screen displayshown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of hardware for implementing one embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, a graphical user interface 10 which may bedisplayed on a display screen of a processor-based system is useful inediting digital video data. The display screen may be any of a varietyof video displays. For example, the screen may be a liquid crystaldisplay on a video camera, a monitor for a computer system or atelevision receiver coupled to a set-top box.

The graphical user interface 10 may be utilized to selectivelymanipulate digital data in the form of a plurality of video frames 18.The plurality of frames 18 may be automatically displayed as astoryboard or gridwork of thumbnail displays. Thus, each frame is shownin a reduced size commonly called a “thumbnail”. A video sequence to beedited may be represented by the thumbnail frames. The sequence may beselected from a longer video by choosing a start time and a timeinterval from the start frame. The number of thumbnail frames over theselected interval, taken at regular times, may also be selected.

The user may use an icon 12 to indicate the start time for the selectionof the thumbnails 18. The time interval icon 14 may be utilized toindicate the amount of time within a longer video sequence which is ofinterest. The icon 16 allows the number of frames within the selectedtime interval, starting at the start time, to be selected by the user.For example, with the start time icon 12, an increase button interface22 and a decrease button 20 are provided on either side of a display 24vary the selected start time. The display 24 may indicate the selectedstart frame by a time indicator.

The frames of any video sequence may be enumerated using a conventionaltime based system such as the standard promulgated by the Society ofMotion Picture and Television Engineers (White Plains, N.Y. 10607)denominated as SMPTE 12M-1999 Television, Audio and Film-Time andControl Code. Each frame may be identified by a time in hours, minutes,seconds and thirtieths of seconds, with video having 30 frames persecond. A start time may be indicated in second fractions, seconds,minutes and hours.

When the user presses the increase button interface 22, the start time,displayed on the display 24, increases. Similarly, the time interval,during which the thumbnails 18 are selected, may be controlled by anicon 28 which causes the time interval to be increased, and an icon 26which decreases the time interval. In the illustrated embodiment, thestart time is the time zero and the time interval is sixteen minutes.Thus, sixteen minutes of video are selected for producing thethumbnails. The number of frames selected within the time interval,entered through the icon 16, may be increased with the button interface36 and decreased with the button interface 32. The number of frames areindicated in the display 34 as being sixteen in the illustratedembodiment.

Thus, as indicated below the icons 12, 14 and 16, sixteen thumbnailframes at one minute time intervals are displayed. A frame is selectedat the beginning of each one minute increment. For each minute of video,using video at thirty frames per second, one thousand eight hundredframes are represented by the single starting frame illustrated as athumbnail 18. Thus, each minute after the initial starting time of zero,a frame is selected and displayed as a thumbnail 18 until sixteen framethumbnails 18 are displayed. Since the number of selected frames wassixteen, sixteen minutes were selected as the interval and the starttime was zero, starting from the beginning of the video, sixteenthumbnail frames 18 are displayed, one for each one minute of video.

The user may increase the start time from that illustrated in FIG. 1 andmay increase or decrease the selected time interval and the number offrames as described previously. Thus, the user can select a givenresolution in the terms of the number of frames to control themanipulation of the video sequence. The length of the video sequence interms of the time interval may also be selected. Likewise, the locationof the video sequence of interest may be controlled.

Once a representation of a given time interval of a video sequence iscreated, via the graphical user interface 10, the user can set aboutediting that video sequence. For example, sections of the time intervalof video frames, displayed on the graphical user interface 10 may beeliminated by simply indicating a start and stop frame 18 for the groupof frames to be eliminated. The start and stop frames and theintervening frames (between the start and stop frames) are therebyeliminated.

Similarly, different video effects may be applied selectively to a videosequence represented by the thumbnail frames 18. For example, fade ins,fade outs or other video effects may be provided. The light intensity ofthe various frames may be changed as well. The graphical user interface10 provides a convenient way to manipulate a given section of videodata. Through the use of the icons 12, 14 and 16, the window whichdefines the way the video sequence is visualized for editing purposesmay be easily adjusted by the user.

The software 38 for implementing the graphical user interface 10, shownin FIG. 2, begins by determining whether the graphical user interface 10has been selected as indicated in diamond 40. If so, the flow waits fora start time selection through the icon 12. Once the start time isselected, the first frame is designated, grabbed and stored as indicatedin block 44. Next, the flow waits for the time interval selection asindicated in diamond 46. Once that selection is made, the portion of thevideo which is of interest is defined and the corresponding frames maybe grabbed as indicated in block 48. Finally, the number of frames thatare utilized to represent the video may be provided in response to aquery represented by the diamond 50. Once that information is provided,the software 38 may then display the graphical user interface 10. If anyof the selections are not timely made through the icons 12, 14 and 16,default values may be entered automatically.

Referring next to FIG. 3, the software 60 for editing the videorepresented by the graphical user interface 10 may implement a frameelimination protocol in one embodiment of the present invention.Initially, the user indicates a start frame as indicated in diamond 62.Once the user indicates a start frame, that start frame identifier isstored as indicated in block 64. The identifier may include an hour,minute, second, and subsecond designation of the particular frame in thesequence. That information may be provided in a header associated withthe frame. Next, the software 60 awaits the user's input of an end frameas indicated in diamond 66. Once this input is received, the end frameidentifier may be stored as indicated in block 68. The interveningframes are then eliminated as indicated in block 70.

In this way, the graphical user interface 10 provides an easy way forthe user to visualize a sequence of video. The software 38 creates agraphical user interface 10, including the icons 12, 14 and 16, thatfacilitates the manipulation of the storyboard which represents a videosequence.

Embodiments of the present invention may be used as a suppression tool,suppressing access to offensive or obscene video portions. For example,a parent may wish to prevent a child from viewing portions of a video.With the present invention, a series of frames of video may be tagged toprevent viewing under certain circumstances. For example, an access codemay be required to view the tagged sequence of frames.

Another application for embodiments of the present invention is inconnection with so-called broadcast pause and resume systems. Thesesystems enable a user to store and replay video at the same time.However, the user must also navigate through the video sequences tofacilitate the broadcast pause and resume features. Using embodiments ofthe present invention, one can readily navigate within the stored video.

A processor-based system 72, shown in FIG. 4, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention generates the graphical userinterface 10 on a television display 84. The system 84 is a set-top boxbut the present invention is in no way limited to this embodiment. It isapplicable to a wide variety of systems which display and store digitalvideo information including digital video cameras, desktop computers,laptop computers, portable and handheld devices, appliances, asexamples.

The system 72 includes a processor 74 coupled to an accelerated graphicsport (AGP) chipset 76 for implementing an accelerated graphics portembodiment. The chipset 76 communicates with the AGP port 80 and thegraphics accelerator 82. A television 84 may be coupled to the videooutput of the graphics accelerator 82. The graphical user interface 10may be displayed on the television 84. The television 84 may be coupledto the video output of the graphics accelerator 82. The chipset 76accommodates the system memory 78.

The chipset 76 is also coupled to a bus 86 which may be, for example, aPeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. The PCI Local BusSpecification, Rev. 2.2 is available from the PCI Special InterestGroup, Portland, Oreg. 97124. The bus 86 connects to a TV tuner/capturecard 88 which is coupled to an antenna 90 or other video input such as acable input, a satellite receiver/antenna or the like. The TVtuner/capture card 88 selects a desired television channel and alsoperforms a video capture function. One exemplary video capture card isthe ISVR-III video capture card available from Intel Corporation.

The bus 86 is also coupled to a bridge 92 which couples a hard diskdrive 94. The software 38 and 60 may be stored on the hard disk 94together with the video sequence being manipulated. The bridge 92 isalso coupled to another bus 96. The bus 96 may be coupled to a serialinput/output device 98. The device 98 is in turn connected to aninfrared interface 100 which interacts with a remote control unit 104which is also infrared based. Also connected to the bus 96 is a basicinput/output system (BIOS) 102.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limitednumber of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerousmodifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appendedclaims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of this present invention.

1-30. (canceled)
 31. A method, comprising: receiving a temporal lengthand a resolution associated with a sequence of video information; anddisplaying a number of thumbnail images from the sequence of videoinformation that both span the temporal length of the sequence of videoinformation and are temporally spaced within the temporal length of thesequence of video information according to the resolution.
 32. Themethod of claim 31, wherein the resolution includes a total number ofimages to be displayed.
 33. The method of claim 31, wherein thedisplaying includes: equally spacing the number of thumbnail imageswithin the temporal length of video information at a temporal separationdetermined by the resolution.
 34. The method of claim 31, wherein thetemporal length or the resolution is manually selected by a user. 35.The method of claim 31, wherein the temporal length or the resolution isautomatically determined from a default value.
 36. The method of claim31, wherein the receiving includes: receiving a location within thesequence of video information, and wherein the displaying includes:displaying the number of thumbnail images starting at the locationwithin the sequence of video information.
 37. The method of claim 36,wherein the location is automatically determined from a default value.38. A method, comprising: receiving duration information that determinesa start time and an end time of a portion of a sequence of videoinformation; receiving resolution information that includes a desirednumber of images; and displaying a set of exemplary images that depictthe portion of a sequence of video information, the set including oneexemplary image at the start time, another exemplary image at the endtime, and a remainder of the set of exemplary images spaced between thestart time and the end time.
 39. The method of claim 38, wherein set ofexemplary images consists of the desired number of images.
 40. Themethod of claim 38, wherein the duration information includes the starttime and a time interval that, when added to the start time, determinesthe end time.
 41. The method of claim 40, further comprising: selectinga default duration as the time interval.
 42. The method of claim 38,further comprising: selecting a default time as the start time.
 43. Themethod of claim 38, further comprising: selecting a default number ofimages as the resolution information.
 44. The method of claim 38,wherein the remainder of the set of exemplary images is equally spacedbetween the start time and the end time.
 45. A machine-accessible mediumincluding instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to: obtain atemporal length and a resolution associated with a sequence of videoinformation; and display a number of thumbnail images from the sequenceof video information that both span the temporal length of the sequenceof video information and are spaced apart within the temporal length ofthe sequence of video information according to the resolution.
 46. Themedium of claim 45, wherein the resolution includes a total number ofimages to be displayed.